(Pascal, The Wager) What is the everything you win, “an infinity of infinitely happy life.” If you bet your life on God and become a true believer, and it turns out God exists, you win an infinite reward. Why? Pascal thinks if God exists God is utterly unlike us. God is simple, without parts. We are riddled with parts that break.
The book contains his famous “Bet.” Pascal argued that it was a far better bet, gamble, or wager to believe that God exists than to deny God’s existence. Belief in God, he contended, assures that a person will have an enormous, everlasting and joyous benefit after death, a gift from God if God exists.
As long as the probability that God exists is non-zero, The Wager works. Pascal assumed it’s 50/50 that God exists, but any positive number or probability multipled by infinity results in infinity. This is the power of The Wager.
According to Pascal, the person who “believes” in God, thinks, at least unconsciously, that God wants people to sit back, relax and depend on divine help. The “believer” thinks that God, like a parent or king, will take care of humanity and bring a messianic age.
Pascal thought that evidence cannot settle the question of whether God exists, so he proposes that you should bet, or wager, on God because of what's at stake: you have lots to gain and not much to lose.
Pascal — French philosopher, scientist, mathematician and probability theorist (1623-1662) — argues that if we do not know whether God exists then we should play it safe rather than risk being sorry.
Pascal himself appears to be aware of one such argument. He admits that if you do not believe in God, his recommended course of action “will deaden your acuteness” (This is Trotter's translation.
. He said that our life is a gamble since we cannot use reason we have to take risks. Pascal said that we can bet our lives that God exists and gain eternal life if we are right and lose very little if we are wrong.
We only have two things to stake, our "reason" and our "happiness". Pascal considers that if there is "equal risk of loss and gain" (i.e. a coin toss), then human reason is powerless to address the question of whether God exists....Analysis with decision theory.God exists (G)God does not exist (¬G)Disbelief (¬B)f2f31 more row
Pascal believes that belief in God is a rational act. Which of the following best describes Pascal's view on the existence of God? in the absence of a proof one way or the other, we choose to live our lives based on something: why not use the anticipated rewards of religious belief as that basis?
In his Pensées (1657–58), Pascal applied elements of game theory to show that belief in the Christian religion is rational. He argued that people can choose to believe in God or can choose to not believe in God, and that God either exists or he does not.
There is certainly no shortage of arguments that purport to establish God's existence, but 'Arguments for the existence of God' focuses on three of the most influential arguments: the cosmological argument, the design argument, and the argument from religious experience.
In conclusion, Pascal's wager is not a good bet. It is more advantageous to be a non-believer than to be a believer. Of course, you may use your reason and come to a different conclusion.
Pascal's Wager. a gambler's argument for religious belief. God either exists or he doesn't, but reason will never give us an answer. that's why one must choose blindly to believe or not to believe in God (without being able to abstain from choosing) if you choose to believe in God and he exists.
what is the relationship between our finitude and infinity? the finite is annihilated in the presence of infinite. We cannot add on to something that is more external than ourselves.
What is the distinction between epistemic and pragmatic reasons for belief? An epistemic reason shows why the belief is likely to be true; a pragmatic reason merely shows why the belief may be useful.
According to Pascal, the person who “believes” in God, thinks, at least unconsciously, that God wants people to sit back, relax and depend on divine help. The “believer” thinks that God, like a parent or king, will take care of humanity and bring a messianic age.
It is virtually certain that Pascal focused on beliefs rather than acts because of the general Christian attitude, derived from the first-century Paul’s teachings, that faith is more important than acts. Thus, Pascal would answer item 1 by saying that there is no problem in suppressing rational thought and accepting blind belief because this is what religion demands. Thus also, in regard to item 2, people are not corrupting themselves by believing; they are fulfilling the demands of Christian teachings. Many Christians also believe item 3’s contention that God punishes non-believers, even punishes those who try to believe but fail to do so. Pascal realized the psychological difficulty of forcing beliefs mentioned in item 4, but although it is difficult to develop a belief, he insisted that people can overcome their thoughts and natural inclinations and force themselves to believe.
Pascal’s wager raises several problems: 1 Insisting that people believe, rather than learn the truth promotes a habit of blind credulity rather than rational thinking. 2 People corrupt themselves and their integrity when they push themselves to believe something that they know is wrong. 3 Pascal’s wager arrogantly implies that God punishes non-believers unjustly. It implies that God has no consideration or mercy for people who are simply unable to believe because of their environment, education, or lack of intelligence. 4 It is impossible to force people to believe something they are certain is irrational and wrong.
Pascal’s wager arrogantly implies that God punishes non-believers unjustly. It implies that God has no consideration or mercy for people who are simply unable to believe because of their environment, education, or lack of intelligence.
Thus, Pascal would answer item 1 by saying that there is no problem in suppressing rational thought and accepting blind belief because this is what religion demands. Thus also, in regard to item 2, people are not corrupting themselves by believing; they are fulfilling the demands of Christian teachings.
Among his works, he wrote Pensées, which was published after his death. The book contains his famous “Bet. ”. Pascal argued that it was a far better bet, gamble, or wager to believe that God exists than to deny God’s existence.
Those who accept his notion try to believe in God – even when they are convinced that God does not exist. Blaise Pascal. Blaise Pascal was a French mathematician, physicist and religious theologian who lived a brief thirty-nine years from 1623 to 1662.
One of Pascal’s most famous works was the Pensées (“Thoughts”), which was published posthumously in 1670. It is in this work that we find what is known as Pascal’s Wager. The gist of the Wager is that, according to Pascal, one cannot come to the knowledge of God’s existence through reason alone, so the wise thing to do is to live your life ...
If He doesn’t exist, we have lost nothing. If, on the other hand, we live as though God does not exist and He really does exist, we have gained hell and punishment and have lost heaven and bliss. If one weighs the options, clearly the rational choice to live as if God exists is the better of the possible choices.
Jesus placed obedience to His commands as an evidence of love for Christ ( John 14:23 ). According to Pascal’s Wager, one is choosing to believe and obey God on the basis of receiving heaven as a reward. This is not to diminish the fact that heaven is a reward and that it is something we should hope for and desire.
One of the points from Jesus’ parable of the soils ( Matthew 13) is that false conversions are going to be a fact of life until the time Christ returns. However, the sign of true saving faith is the fruit it produces ( Matthew 7:16-20 ).
There is a cost to following Jesus, and it is not an easy price to pay. Jesus told His disciples that they would have to lose their lives in order to save them ( Matthew 10:39 ).
Pascal even suggested that some may not, at the time, have the ability to believe in God. In such a case, one should live as if he had faith anyway. Perhaps living as if one had faith may lead one to actually come to faith. Now there have been criticisms over the years from various camps.
Furthermore, the knowledge of God is enough to render us all without excuse before God’s judgment. We are all under God’s wrath for suppressing the truth of God in unrighteousness. Second, there is no mention of the cost involved in following Jesus.